First graders love opportunities to express themselves creatively. We work to integrate the arts into all academic areas. Art projects not only help students express themselves, but also provide opportunities for students to practice fine motor skills and work on spacial awareness.
Our first grade students are enthusiastic learners!
They care about one another and have a positive attitude about nearly everything. Our school works hard to create a strong community and it shows in the way students treat one another. The students in our classrooms have diverse language backgrounds. Fifty percent of the students receiving this gift are bilingual learners, speaking both Spanish and English at school. More than fifty percent of the students in these two classrooms also come from low income households. Our school is in a large metropolitan city. Students have art class once a week for one hour, and we see the value in teaching through art so we add in more art projects into other curricular areas. The two classrooms receiving this paper work together on art projects. This provides students of different cultural backgrounds an opportunity to come together and form new friendships while expressing themselves creatively.
My Project
Two first grade classrooms will use this paper in so many ways! We do thematic art projects together connected to what we are reading or the seasons. We also create calendars and science diagrams. The paper is used to cut out shapes that students use in math class. We also solve story problems through pictures that students create using the colored paper.
First graders work on fine motor skills, spacial awareness, and will be able to express their creativity, all while cutting, gluing, folding, and coloring. The special thing about this gift is that while students work on these projects together they connect with each other. The bilingual students have opportunities to work on their English while they also teach Spanish words to their new friends.
You wouldn't believe it, but paper is expensive!
Construction paper has to come out of teachers' small classroom budget, or out of the teachers' pockets. Your donation will support the arts within the classroom. It will allow students additional opportunities to be creative beyond the art classroom. Students find enjoyment and relaxation when they can express their creativity freely and the collaborative nature of our projects brings bilingual and non-bilingual students together.
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Ms. Steffen and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
